Strategies For Busy People

The 9 Rules for Hiring Freelance Copywriters That Grew an Empire

MaryEllen Tribby, CEO Working Moms Only, Formerly CEO of Early To Rise and President of Weiss Research

In today’s issue, guest expert contributor, MaryEllen Tribby, grew Early To Rise from $8 million to $26 million in just 15 months as the CEO and publisher. Before that, she served as President of Weiss Research where she led the company to $67 million in sales from $11 million in just 12 months.

A 25-year direct response marketing veteran, MaryEllen explains why a good copywriter is the greatest asset to your bottom line and shares her 9 rules for working with outsourced copywriters.

Your sales copy is critically important…so study someone who has hired the best.

Jason Bax

The Busy Entrepreneur’s & Executive’s Guide To Working With Outsourced Copywriters

By MaryEllen Tribby

I’ve spent over 25 years in the marketing world. My marketing campaigns have spanned every marketing channel – from television to direct mail… e-mail to radio… telemarketing to Internet… and beyond.

The world of marketing is changing all the time, and I’ve learned how to adapt, testing new marketing methods while never neglecting the tried-and-true strategies that have proved to be most effective.

Throughout my career, the one thing that has remained unchanged is the fact that “Copy Is King.”

Don’t get me wrong; the media you purchase is the most important element as far as your campaign’s ultimate success. But it is your sales message that is going to make the difference between good and great results.

Here’s an example of just how important your sales copy is …

The company I was running had just created a new natural-resource investment service. We were very proud of it. We had found a top-notch editor with a five-year verifiable track record. We spent hours researching and working on the sales promotion for this service. But right before we were ready to send the sales letter out to our prospective subscribers, we all had a nagging feeling that something about the copy was off … but we couldn’t quite put our fingers on it.

So we took the promotion to a copywriter, who immediately saw the problem.
The copy was breaking a critical rule. Throughout the entire sales letter, we were telling the reader why this service was so great when we should have been showing him!

For example, we were saying: “Dr. Russell McDougal has a very successful track record of investing in natural-resource companies” [telling], instead of saying something like this: “Dr. McDougal’s success speaks for itself. In fact, just last year five of the stocks he purchased shot up more than 200%” [showing].

Another example, we were saying: “Dr. McDougal has excellent contacts in the natural-resources industry” [telling], instead of saying something like this: “Dr. McDougal is on a first-name basis with the CEOs of dozens of mining companies, and these inside contacts have paid off time and time again.

In fact, after a recent conversation with the president of a gold-exploration company, he became so certain of the company’s success that he doubled his own position. Sure enough, just months later the company struck pay dirt and the stock soared in value” [showing].

The copywriter went back to work and changed some of the copy, making sure he was showing just how the service would benefit the reader.

Because we had a strong offer and had purchased the proper media, the original sales letter most likely would have done okay had we not made those changes. But by making sure that the sales copy was as strong as possible, we were able to exceed our expected results.

Having done thousands of direct-response campaigns, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the very best copywriters in the world. But it was working with some of the very worst copywriters in the world that made me appreciate just how important good copy (and good copywriters) are… and helped me learn how to work with all levels of copywriters.

There are three basic levels of copywriters: A, B, and C. Each of these levels has sub-levels of pluses and minuses. There are only about five A+ copywriters in the world, including Clayton Makepeace, John Carlton, and Michael Masterson.

But you will most likely never get these gentlemen to write for you, for several reasons. Primarily, they don’t need to. Plus, they would rather spend their time teaching their protégés the art of copywriting, knowing that doing this will continue to build their own businesses.

Regardless of what level a copywriter is at, they all have one thing in common. They all believe that they are the most important and greatest asset to your bottom line. Sure, many times they are right. But just as often, they are way off. However, once you have contracted with a freelance copywriter for a specific project, you need to follow some guidelines.

Top 9 Rules for Working with Freelance Copywriters :

1. Lack of experience isn’t a deal breaker.

Working with an inexperienced copywriter is fine as long as she understands direct-response marketing fundamentals and how to sell, is smart, and is willing to really understand your niche market. Sometimes, hiring new copywriters works out to your advantage, because they are the ones who meet deadlines more consistently and will want to prove their value.

2. Before you hire your copywriter, ask for samples of his work. If he doesn’t have any samples in your specific niche, give him a test.

(This is something I do regardless of the samples.) Testing a copywriter is easy. I pick a single product, show the copywriter past promotions, let him speak with the creator or editor of that product, and ask him for a headline and lead within 24 hours. You aren’t going to get something you can immediately use when you ask for a 24-hour turnaround, but this test will give you a good indication of a copywriter’s instincts. If he is not willing to take the test, go no further with him.

3. Before you hire a copywriter, ask for results of previous campaigns with past clients.

If she tells you her client could not supply them “because their computer system could not track them” – go no further. Any copywriter who does not care about results is not worth working with.

4. If the copywriter asks only for an upfront fee and no royalties – go no further.

If he doesn’t think his copy is worth royalties, it’s probably not. Now I’m not saying I would agree to pay royalties to a fairly inexperienced writer – but I certainly want to know that he thinks his copy is worthy of them. (And I can work out a royalty agreement with him later, once the campaign has met a certain benchmark.)

5. If the copywriter does not insist on working with your artist to provide graphic direction – go no further.

Yes, copy is king – but readability is queen. And if you cannot read the sales letter, it doesn’t really matter how good the copy is.

You may be the publisher, COO, and marketing director (not to mention product developer and janitor), but it is the marketing director who needs to provide vision and guidance to the copywriter.

7. Once you have hired a freelance copywriter, treat her like part of your internal team.

This sounds easy, but it can actually be very difficult to work with outside copywriters. The marketing director needs to set the example for the entire internal team by making the copywriter feel like a member of the “family.” If you are developing a new product, for instance, ask the copywriter to be part of the product-development session. If you are brainstorming a new promotion, your copywriter should always be present.

8. Never let operational people talk to your copywriter.

Years ago, I had a COO say that we should stop marketing altogether during a time when our sales copy just wasn’t working. Any savvy marketing person will tell you that this is a time when you need to continue marketing and testing, not stop. Operations people are usually the ones who have the job of finding out why things “can’t” be done. And in this situation such negative talk can destroy the copywriter’s enthusiasm and energy … which will make your advertising campaign suffer.

9. TEST, TEST, TEST. (Did I mention TEST?)

Always hire copywriters who understand the value of testing and who’s ideas for tests scream, not whisper. This means you test ideas that will increase your response rates by 25 percent instead of a measly five percent. (If you want to test your price, for instance, you’d want to raise or lower it by 50 percent rather than by five percent, which would have a much smaller effect on response.) My favorite thing to test is the headline (especially with online copy). The headline is the key component to grabbing someone’s attention.

The remainder of the promotion can stay the same. With very little additional work, you can expand the life of a promotion and add incremental dollars to your bottom line.

Learning how to hire and work with freelance copywriters is crucial to making sure your customers sit up and take notice of the products and services your business has to offer.

About the Author:

MaryEllen Tribby was Publisher & CEO of Early to Rise where she was responsible for growing the business from $8 million in sales to $26 million in just 15 months. Before that, she served as President of Weiss Research where she led the company to $67 million in sales from $11 million in just 12 months. Currently, MaryEllen is the is the founder and CEO of Working Moms Only.

Her first book – which she co-authored with Michael Masterson is, Changing the Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions For Your Business. It hit #1 on Amazon.com within just 10 hours of its release.

Her second book, Reinventing the Entrepreneur: Turning Your Dream Business into a Reality, just released by Wiley Publishing, hit #1 on Amazon in the Marketing Category and #9 in the Entrepreneurship Category only hours after its release

Editor Summary

Don’t be cheapskate CEO Charlie or Halfway Harry. Would you trust your sales to the cheapest salesperson or some random dude you met on the street? Probably not, right? Your sales letter is your virtual salesperson who works around the clock convincing people to buy your products and services. It can take 30-60 days to write high converting copy. If your copywriters are good they will be in demand so you won’t be able to call them up today and get them writing your copy tomorrow. Start building your stable of copywriters you can call on today.

Get Published – Get Exposure

We're committed to featuring the best - and passing on the rest.

Are you a marketing expert who specializes in conversion optimization, email marketing, design, traffic, social media, etc...with proven results and an ability to communicate with the written word? If so, we'd like to feature your ideas on Internetmarketing.com.